The WebiNar I attended the other week dealt with marketing ideas. One of the co-hosts was Dana Lynn Smith. She is the author of ‘The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide to Successful Social Marketing.’ She has 15 years in the publishing industry. Brian Jud was the other co-host. He has written ‘Beyond the Bookstore’ and has been with Booksurge WebiNar series for a few months.

This seminar focused on two types of networking ~ Social Networking vs Face to Face Networking. Looking at these two types of networking brought out so much information. The information gleaned gave me a clearer understanding of how to use these networks effectively with my PDA.

Networking is something everyone needs to do. It is an art, a science and a technology. The art of networking is our personality. The science is the planning of a networking schedule. The technology of networking are the tools you can use.

Once I understood the function of social networks I began to see why social networks can be profitable. Twitter is one social network that has frustrated me. Through this WebiNar I began to see that ‘tweets’ sent to my PDA needed to be controlled and specific. I began to understand how to send ‘tweets’ that were valuable to those following me. This opened up some avenues on how to use Twitter and why it was so valuable to the Iranian people over the past few weeks.

The key to successful social networking is planning. You must first decide who you are trying to reach. Consider carefully your target audience and where they will ‘hang out’ online. Once you know the who and where you need to know the what. What are your wanting to achieve?

While I was getting frustrated with all the ‘unwanted’ emails and ‘tweets’ coming to my PDA, I failed to see the benefit because I did not understand the value of social networking. Social networking is to build your platform and build a platform where you meet other like minded individuals. This takes time and honestly I did not want to take the time. I fell head long into the 1st major mistake ~ I started social networking without a plan. My 2nd mistake was not planning my time properly and the social networking began to take over my life! 3rd, I was making it all about me, when I should have been listening to those in my network.

I turned my PDA off from all emails and tweets from any social network. Quietness became common, but it was too common. Soon, emails and tweets ended and so did my social network.

After listening to this WebiNar I have begun taking the correct steps in building my social network. I am taking the time to understand how to control what gets sent to my PDA and what I have to request. So far this has been good ~ and I am slowly seeing some of the benefits social networking can bring.

PDA’s have powerful tools when used correctly. You need to begin with a plan. My PDA was for my business and personal life. This had to stop! We all think we can manage multiple tasks at the same time! I can do that with many things, but NOT with social networking. When it comes to managing data this is not so easily done. I want to organize my personal tasks one way and business tasks another. My solution was to get 2 phones. This solution seemed extreme at first, but now I am so glad I did. None of my ‘tweets’ or emails from social networks for my personal interests go to my business PDA. So now I know that my messages are important for business, while I can let my personal ones be looked at when I have time.

My solution of 2 PDA’s probably will not work for many. So my recommendation is that you carefully decide what gets sent automatically and what gets batched. My friends now know the text messages I receive will be looked at and answered and I can successfully build a social network to expand my business.

One other important rule they stressed during the WebiNar was the need to keep accurate records of events and conversations. It was recommended a few times to use a contact management program. I have written many articles on this subject and I was pleased to hear this WebiNar encourage this type of data collection.

Since I have been using my PDA for business only I have also found that I can use the ‘Navigation’ add-on and save them with my contacts. This has helped so many times while driving! If your PDA does not have a ‘Navigation’ add-on you need to find one. There are a few out there so read about what they offer before downloading the first one you see.

I will be publishing several more articles over the next few days that list ‘Top 10' marketing tips, rules and benefits. These will be placed in an eBook that you will be able to purchase on bellaonline. I have not published anything on bellaonline yet, so please be patient as I do not know how long it will take to publish.